Nikolas Cruz, the teen accused of killing 17 people in a shooting rampage at a Florida high school last month, is attracting an avalanche of mail from fans offering friendship, encouragement and sexually provocative photos.

The South Florida Sun Sentinel obtained hundreds of pages of photocopies of letters and photos sent to Cruz, 19, who is being held while awaiting trial on a litany of charges including 17 counts of first degree murder.

“No one else is dealing w/your demons, meaning maybe defeating them could be the beginning of your meaning, friend," an 18-year-old from New York wrote in a letter decorated with pink hearts. "I know you could use a good friend right now. Hang in there and keep your head up."

A woman from Chicago sent Cruz nine photos, including a photo in a bikini, one of her cleavage and another of her posterior. A Texas woman commented on his "beautiful" eyes and "handsome" freckles.

Cruz is on suicide watch and is not permitted to receive mail, most of which is opened by jail officials. Broward County Public Defender Howard Finkelstein, whose office is representing Cruz, told the Sun Sentinel he has never seen so much mail for a defendant in his 40 years as a public defender.

“We read a few religious ones to him that extended wishes for his soul and to come to God,” Finkelstein said, “We have not and will not read him the fan letters or share the photos of scantily clad teenage girls.”

Steven Dubovsky, the University at Buffalo chair of Psychiatry who has studied mass shootings, says some people get a kind of "notoriety and fame by association" with heinous killers.

"Anybody with real relationships or any firm grasp on reality is not going to engage in this behavior," Dubovsky said. "You have people who have no real gratification in life."

Cruz is not the first mass murderer to draw a rabid fan following. Charles Manson, who died in prison in November, was briefly engaged in 2014 to a woman who ran the website Release Charles Manson Now.

"It’s like hanging out with a rock star or being a groupie," Dubovsky said. "There are a lot of groupies around. So they are murder groupies instead of a rock star groupies."

Finkelstein said he worries that young people are looking up to Cruz: “That scares me. It's perverted.”

Cruz, 19, walked into Marjory Stoneman Douglas School in Parkland on Valentine's Day, armed with a semiautomatic rifle. He walked out about six minutes later amid chaos as students fled to safety or hunkered down in classrooms.

In addition to the death toll, more than a dozen students and staff were wounded in the carnage.

After stopping at a Walmart and a McDonald's, Cruz was apprehended by a police officer about an hour after the rampage, walking in a neighborhood not far from the school.

The tragedy energized student leaders at the school to demand safer schools and tighter restrictions on guns. They organized a student walkout at schools nationwide, then a March for Our Lives that drew more than a million people to rallies and marches across the nation and around the world.

Meanwhile, Zachary Cruz, the 18-year-old brother of Nikolas Cruz, pleaded no contest Thursday to a misdemeanor charge of trespassing on the Stoneman Douglas campus March 19. He was sentenced to time served and six months of probation.

Protesters gathered outside of the Florida Capitol Building, Wednesday, in support of gun reform. The protest comes one week after the shooting in Parkland, Fla. at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, that left 17 people dead.
Andrew Salinero, USA TODAY NEWORK

A survivor of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting massacre called out President Trump at the rally in Tallahassee on Wednesday, asking him, "Mr. President, what is my life worth?"
Andrew Salinero, USA TODAY NEWORK

Brandon Wolfe, a survivor of the Pulse Nightclub massacre, addresses the crowd at the rally in Tallahassee, alongside students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. "Do your job, or stay out of our way!" he emphasized to the crowd and to lawmakers in attendance.
Andrew Salinero, USA TODAY NEWORK

Former American astronaut Scott Kelly walks out of the Florida Capitol building in Tallahassee. Kelly became an advocate for gun control after his wife, Gabby Giffords, was nearly assassinated in Casas Adobes, Arizona on Jan. 8th, 2011.
Andrew Salinero, USA TODAY NEWORK

Tallahassee mayor Andrew Gillum marches with Florida State students down College Avenue in Tallahassee on their way to the Florida Capitol to support gun reform. Feb. 21, 2018.
ANDREW SALINERO, USA TODAY NETWORK VIA THE FSVIEW

Jodi-Ann Henningham, right, and Jeremiah Carter, both FAMU students from Broward County lead chants as students from the university head to the Old Capitol to join thousands of others for a rally against gun violence, championed by survivors of last week’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, Feb. 21, 2018.
JOE RONDONE, USA TODAY NETWORK

A rally against gun violence in Florida culminates at the steps of the Old Capitol in Tallahassee, Fla. as Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School survivors lead the way on Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018.
JOE RONDONE, USA TODAY NETWORK VIA THE TALLAHASSEE DEMOCRAT

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students walk to the Florida Capitol in Tallahassee, Fla. The students are in town to lobby the Florida Legislature to push for gun control laws after 17 people were killed last week by at their Parkland, Fla. school.
Hali Tauxe, Tallahassee Democrat via USA TODAY NETWORK

A rally against gun violence in Florida culminates at the steps of the Old Capitol in Tallahassee, Fla. as Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School survivors lead the way Feb. 21, 2018.
JOE RONDONE, USA TODAY NETWORK VIA THE TALLAHASSEE DEMOCRAT

A rally against gun violence culminates at the steps of the Old Capitol in Tallahassee, Fla. as Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School survivors lead the way on Feb. 21, 2018.
JOE RONDONE, USA TODAY NETWORK VIA THE TALLAHASSEE DEMOCRAT

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School parent Sergia Felix becomes emotional on Feb. 20, 2018 as she remembers the fear she felt when she learned that there was a shooter at her child's school on Feb. 14, 2018, as she and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students meet with legislators at the Florida Capitol.
Hali Tauxe, Tallahassee Democrat via USA TODAY NETWORK

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School freshman Emma Stravitz, 14, listens during a meeting with a senator during a visit with fellow students to the Florida Capitol on Feb. 21, 2018. Wednesday. Stravitz was in the freshman building when a shooter infiltrated her school last week killing 17 people.
Hali Tauxe, Tallahassee Democrat via USA TODAY NETWORK

Survivors from the fatal shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School arrive at the Florida Capitol in Tallahassee, Feb 21, 2018. The students are in town to lobby the Florida Legislature to push a ban on the assault-style rifle used to kill over a dozen people a week ago.
Mark Wallheiser, AP

Tallahassee high schoolers descend on the Florida Capitol to join students from Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School to push lawmakers for gun and school safety laws, Feb. 21, 2018.
Karl Etters, USA TODAY NETWORK